Rumours are aplenty across the Internet world, they always have been and always will be. They come, raise some hubbub, and then usually fade away with the tide of the news sea. But here and then there are those special little whispers that peak the interest of a wider audience and fester into persistent sores in the gaming world, never truly fading away like I desperately wish they would. (I feel like I've done that intro several times and each time it gets grosser) This is one of those rumours that is doing the nine yards as it would seem folk have officially started up the whisper wagon for that much memed subject; the creation and debut of Grand Theft Auto 6. (Lord help us all.)
Now of course this isn't the first time that folk on the internet have started flapping their gums about "The imminent Grand Theft Auto 6". In fact, I believe if we're being technical all this stuff started not too long after the launch of Grand Theft Auto Online. (Which was, let me remind you, about 3 months after GTA V. So we're dealing with that breed of people here.) But these sorts of wild accusations have been building pretty much ever since Red Dead Redemption 2 dropped as people immediately assumed; "Oh, Rockstar have done their other game which means GTA 6 is literally around the corner. That's how it works, afterall!" Of course, this is usually coming out of the mouths of the same folk who constantly predicted the release of 'GTA Zombies' every week for the past 9 years, so forgive me if I don't start holding my breath.
But today it seem something unique has piqued up alongside the thudding rumour mill, an actual honest-to-goodness source! (Well how in the heck did that get there?) Yes, according to that most reputable of information sources, some guy on Reddit, Grand Theft Auto Six is much further along in development than we all thought and has not been affected either by this Corona outbreak nor the departure of Rockstar's longtime head writer, Dan Houser. And that's because Dan had apparently entirely finished the script before he left, which sort of makes sense I guess. The part at where I drop off is when the rumours then go on to claim that this is normal procedure for Rockstar, that they start off with a script, record the voice acting, and then go on to make the rest of the game. Now I ain't no expert game developer myself with sources coming out the wazoo but as far as I've heard that is literally the exact opposite approach that ever other traditional game development studio takes, VO's are usually kept until the end. But then Rockstar have also danced to beat of their own drum, so I guess that's not too big of a jump.
I just find it hard to reconcile the fact that merely because the scripting (and apparently the VO) work is done that means the game itself is finished. Or "50% done" as the rumours actually imply. There is so much that goes into making a small budget game beyond the voice acting and story that such a claim would be inconceivable, and we're not talking about a small budget game here. Rockstar have a reputation to uphold as master worldcrafters who have redefined the industry standard for environment development time and time again, and that's the sort of mastery that typically take a lot of time to nail down. (At least that's what I've always been told, I don't have no experience of being that talented.) But hey; I don't know. Maybe this French Redditor and his many mysterious sources are right, as well as his maybe-not-French contemporary who seems to insist on the game being so close to the finish line. I mean it's not like there's any much more respected and well-connected member of the games media who's come out to completely pooh-pooh this entire narrative. Oh wait, yes there is.
You see, before announcing his retirement from Kotaku, Jason Schrier confirmed with his sources that the game was actually still in early development stages and nothing would be materialised for a good many years. But come on, who are you gonna believe? A couple of guys on Reddit who managed to correctly guess the departure of Dan Houser was coming. (As though that was even a secret. Don't people have to hand in some sort of notice? That's how that usually works) Or the man who's widely considered the only actual reporter in gaming media. (Or at least he was the only reporter, now he's off to Bloomberg: who don't actually have a dedicated gaming department as far as I can tell.) Well if you ask the Internet it's obviously going to be the underdogs, because I guess it's just so much more sexy to say something will happen than to say it won't.
But just in case that little info tease isn't enough to get folk all hot and bothered, our tipsters had a much more vague, safe guess to make regarding GTA 6. You see, they also harped on about how the map was going to "So huge, guys!". Quite the broad assumption to make considering the game is apparently only half constructed "But's it's gonna be like; 'bigger than all the other GTA maps'", which is perhaps one of the single most unimpressive predictions I have ever heard regarding a video game bar none for several reasons. (Oh and just a quick aside, I'm using quotations for effect, these aren't actual quotes.) Besides that, can we get over the whole 'the bigger the map means the better the game' mentality? It's pretty dumb. The size of the landmass is only one part of the puzzle compared to the way the team fills it. That little factor can contribute to making a large area feel small and a small place feel huge. Heck, I still attest that 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' has a bigger feeling landmass than 'Grand Theft Auto: V's purely through the inclusion of islands and lakes between them.
None of this matters of course, because the word has already set in the dirt whether it ends up being a lie or not, and I'm certainly no fan of this turn of events. Perhaps that comes from me being a suck up, but I've never really saw the appeal of hearing about a game through leaks instead of just waiting for the marketing web that the publishers plan to weave. Okay, maybe 'never' isn't exactly true, there was a time when I was all about that. A time where even hearing about and reading the casting call for GTA V's characters was worth my time. (Which is something that we still haven't heard about regarding GTA VI by-the-by. Just if you needed another point against the validity of this rumour) But since then it just hasn't felt as fun as keeping up with the word of the developers. I didn't listen to that 'leaked audio' from the Cyberpunk E3 showcase a couple years back, instead I heard the account from those that attended the gameplay and played into the hype; allowing me to appreciate it fully when CDPR released that gameplay to the world later on.
So there it is, the news cycle for Grand Theft Auto 6 has begun whether Rockstar want it to or not. I suppose with a company of the fame and mystery of theirs, it's inevitable for such a train to be started without their consent, but it's still sad to see so many folk ready and willing to jump the gun so spectacularly. Myself, I won't spend the next few weeks digging through forum posts on obscure boards and trading favours onto discord rooms all for the hope of 240p composite photograph of a map. (At least; not this time.) But hey, it's people's prerogative for how they choose to express their fandom; waiting for the magic moment the trailer hits or browsing through google and going "huh." at a headline. Argh, I'm too bitter, I'm going back to bed. (Harumph.)
No comments:
Post a Comment